The Florist
by xlawrx
Summary: Roxas was just going to buy some flowers for his brother's wedding anniversary from the local florist when he stumbles upon an interesting girl, who, no matter what he says or does, won't respond to him. This is his journey to wooing her. Roxiri. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! So, this is my first story here on , and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have writing it! The story will come in three parts, and will be updated over the next few weeks. Please review and let me know what you think! I really hope you all like it.**

* * *

Chapter 1: The Girl

"So," Roxas says, and he runs a hand across the desk in front of him, digs his fingernails in, bruising the wood, scarring it, leaving it looking battered. "So, hi."

Kairi though, that girl behind the counter, the one with the stunning, lively face, doesn't even look up. The girl just sighs, stares at the countertop with large, blue eyes. Too deep, too quiet. She just taps at the sign behind her.

_How may I serve you?_

Roxas only sighs, runs his fingers through his hair, and shoots Kairi one last, fleeting glance. "Carnations," he says, puffs out his cheeks and pulls out his wallet.

The red headed girl nods, fumbles with the paper pad in her hand and for a few seconds, that's the only sound, the pen that runs races across the paper. But then she sighs again, and her purple sneakers squeak across the floor as she goes to get the flowers.

* * *

It doesn't really start anywhere, but if Roxas had to choose a beginning, he'd tell people it was on his brother's second wedding anniversary.

On the day it rained cats and dogs, flooding the streets of Twilight Town.

_Pitter-patter_, and Roxas, his clothes are soaked through, drowning in the street, but Sora, Sora will be pissed if he misses it, if he doesn't go.

The florist on Destiny Avenue is his first stop, and he falls inside the door, collapses onto the cold tiles that pattern the floor. They don't match, and it's all he can see.

Roxas groans, rubs his head with bruising hands. "Crap," he says. "Crap."

There's a giggle somewhere in the space above him, and he looks up in time to see a pretty girl with too much dirt on her clothes, under her nails. The girl is coming closer, and with every movement, Roxas gets a sniff full of marigold and tiger lily flowers.

"A hand would be good right about now," Roxas says though, and he sits up, rubs some of the water off his knees and clothes.

The girl though, only laughs again, and stretched a wide, quite pretty smile. She pushes a hand off her hip, hovers it just above Roxas's eye-level, and Roxas takes it and pulls himself up.

"Thanks," he says, and the girl, she's still smiling, her eyes are still sparkling, and Roxas can't say he understands why his heart flutters in his throat, hums, whistles like a bird.

"Thanks," he says again, and the red head squints a little, looks straight into Roxas's eyes, and Roxas's breath gets caught around his heart. "Thanks."

"Kairi," a voice calls from somewhere behind them. "Kairi." It's another girl, another young girl, and she takes the first girl, _Kairi_, by the shoulder. "Kairi, go help Aqua out back."

Kairi nods, but she's all smiles still, her fingers loosen on Roxas's hand, and she waves a little.

_Bye_.

Only Roxas, he chooses to interpret it as _see you later._

"Hey, are you okay?"

It's the other girl, the blonde one with her hand on her hip, and her apron covered in grass stains.

"Fine, actually, _great_," he says, and he runs a hand through his hair, it catches on the blonde spikes, and Roxas grimaces. "I've been better."

"I could guess that," the blonde girl says, and casts him a wry smile, "I'm Namine, how can I help you?"

"Oh, uh, I need a bouquet."

"I figured," Namine states dryly. "What kind?"

"Surprise me."

* * *

"Ugh, I hate my job," Roxas mumbles, and tries not to scratch at where the rim of the rubber glove grazes the skin on his wrist. "Crap."

Roxas works in a tropical smoothie hut, and even the back room, the one with no customers, it's littered with fake palm trees and bright yellow wallpaper. He figures he should start wearing sunglasses to work with the way the fluorescent light bulb reflects off the sinks and drawers and sterilized countertops.

"Shut up, Roxas," Axel says, but he lets loose a wayward grin from where he hides behind the trays of fruit. "Everyone knows you love us really."

"I'm not denying that, Axel, what I'm saying is that I hate this _job_. This stupid, crappy job of tending to people with fruit fetishes."

Axel, the spiky red head laughs aloud at that and wanders over to him, poking him in the head. "You are such a loser."

Roxas grumbles out an inaudible reply and leans his head over hers. "My life sucks so _bad_."

"It could be worse,"

"Name one way it could be worse." And he knows it's stupid and there are probably a million people in the world who would very happily trade places, but, well, Roxas _really_hates his job.

Axel rolls his eyes though, chuckles and runs a hand over the watermelon in front of him. "You could have no job at all ."

Roxas didn't care, he still _hated _his job. One of the reasons why was incoming.

"Roxas," Larxene calls from the doorway. Larxene is the big shift manager, she knows everyone, and maybe, maybe she's nice, but she's not nice to _them_. "Roxas, I need you to take over out front!"

Roxas lifts his head just enough to glare at the back of Axel's red-headed skull. "You jinxed me, jerk."

"Have fun," he says, grabs the knife from the strainer to slaughter the watermelon. "And when you get back I shall be ready with a list of all the ways in which your life could be worse."

"I hate you," he says, but he rips off his gloves and storms out of what the employees affectionately call the 'doors of hell'.

Behind him, Axel calls out in a cheery tone, "You love me!"

The front of the store is surprisingly empty for a Saturday morning. The fan rickets overhead, a couple in the back corner share a straw, a group of girls in the middle gossip about all of their high school drama.

Only, the glass sides of the counter - the ones that display fruit and cakes and drinks - well, there's a girl pressed up against it.

Not a whole girl, just hands and arms and a face.

Roxas raises an eyebrow and props himself over the counter. "Excuse me?"

The girl looks up too quickly, smiles too wide and she waves.

It's the girl, the _Kairi, _from the florist two days ago. "Hi," Roxas says, and maybe he smiles back a bit, maybe he waves too.

Kairi stands up suddenly, and Roxas falls back on his heels. "Hey, what would you like?"

The blue-eyed girl, though, she doesn't say anything, just pulls a menu from the countertop, reads, points at a paopu flavored fruit and apple smoothie.

"That one?"

Kairi doesn't say anything, doesn't acknowledge Roxas's there at all really, and just pulls out the amount of munny from her sparkly, pink wallet.

* * *

Roxas really hates it when shops have bells above their doors, so he tries not to make a face when he slides into the florist the next day, resists the urge to tell someone to take it down.

Kairi's there in the corner of the tiny store, and she's picked up one of the vases, one of the one's filled with standard red roses.

"Hi," Roxas says, and Kairi, the look she gives him back is almost questioning, confused.

"Uh, how are you?" Roxas asks, and rolls back on his heels, hands in his pockets.

Kairi sighs, runs fingers through her shoulder length hair, and maybe she shrugs, but with the way she moves, it's kinda hard to tell. She picks herself up and walks back behind the counter, reaches over and taps at the sign.

_How may I serve you?_

"Oh, daisies…or something, to be honest I don't _know_. Can you like, recommend any?"

Another girl sneaks out from behind the counter, out of nowhere. "Can I help you, sir?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess."

"Kairi, go help Aqua out back."

Somewhere in the distance, Namine rolls her eyes.

* * *

"So, there's this girl," Roxas starts, and Axel opposite him, he laughs aloud.

"Wow, Roxas," he says, and piles ice-cream into his mouth.

"It's not a big deal or anything, it's just she seems, I dunno, _nice_."

"Is she hot?" he asks, and Axel's grin is milky white to match the ice-cream.

Roxas rolls his eyes, grins back at his best friend.

"Define hot."

"So, not?" Axel mumbles, chokes out. It's kinda hard to tell, when he has a mouthful of food.

"No, she is. I mean, she's cute and stuff, _pretty._"

Axel raises an eyebrow, rubs his mouth off on her sleeve. "_Pretty?"_

"Yeah."

"Okay," he says, but he's still grinning like a lunatic. "Okay."

"But she like, she just doesn't _talk_, ever. I mean, I'm sure she _can_, she just…chooses not to? I dunno."

"Maybe she thinks you're an idiot," Axel states, and he's smiling still, as he leans backward onto the floor.

Roxas though, he just stares at her blatantly, his forehead creases and his lips droop into a small frown. "Axel_._"

He glances over, before chuckling at his best friend's face. The spiky red head reaches over to punch his arm lightly. "Gosh, Roxas. I'm _kidding_."

"You better be," the blonde says, and he lies down next to him, stretches out an arm to thump Axel in the head.

"If the girl can't see how awesome you are, man, then forget her." Axel states seriously, and he rolls over, looking at Roxas.

"This seems familiar," Roxas says, and he casts her a wry smile. "You repeating advice I gave you?"

"Yeah," Axel says, smirking, remembering when he had been told the same thing about his last girlfriend. It didn't work out all that great.

"Xion's an idiot," Roxas says, "She'll come around. If not, you're better off without her."

"Yeah," Axel says, but the red head doesn't quite believe it.

* * *

So maybe the florist is a really tiny store. Maybe it's this tiny building that becomes smaller with every bundle of flowers that grow around the walls look like jungle vines.

Maybe now that Roxas's here with just the one intention, it seems even smaller.

"So," Roxas says, and Kairi's in the front, watering the pansies and wow, the irony in _that_ scenario. "So," Roxas tries again, adamantly attempting to ignore his exploding heart. "So…"

Kairi's staring at him now, like she just noticed he came in. Kairi _waves_.

"So, hi," Roxas says, and how sad is it that it took him that long to say _that_?

The red headed girl squints, smiles, wrings the handle of the can around in her small, smooth hands.

"So, I'm Roxas, and I don't think I ever introduced myself." He sticks out a hand, and crap, he feels like an idiot. Feels ridiculous here, with this girl he hardly knows. "I've been coming in here for the last three weeks, you might have noticed me, or maybe you haven't…"

Kairi's all timid as she eyes off the hand, but she reaches a palm out to meet it after much weariness, and wow, _awkward_.

"So, okay, so the point is, for lack of a better phrase," Roxas says, and he's starting to feel like a twelve-year-old with a crush. "I _like_you, and well, maybe we could go out sometime."

The girl, she's still not saying anything, and Roxas isn't that surprised, but maybe he's disappointed, maybe he wants some sort of reaction, because this is starting to feel too much like rejection.

"Just, _maybe_, I mean, it's not like I'm gonna force you or anything." And he lets loose a nervous laugh, one that vibrates around the pits of his stomach. "It could be fun…"

Kairi's forehead is creasing, and her lips droop into a frown, she starts to walk off before Roxas can say anything else. Kairi is walking behind the desk, and when Roxas looks over he blushes, the tips of his ears and the base of his neck a color of dark red.

The girl only looks over, and her eyes might be watering a bit, but instead, she just turns around and taps that sign of hers.

_How may I serve you?_

"Crap," The spiky blonde says, and something has crept its way up his body, and is currently exploding in his stomach. The smoke billows through his throat, out his ears. "Forget it then," he says. "I ask you one thing, you could at least reply-"

Kairi's eyes are suddenly shining, they reflect the light, waver, and Roxas is about ready to _ explode_, but…but he's grabbed from behind, thrust out the closed door, and that bell, it rings in his ears.

Suddenly, he's out the front of the florist, and Namine's in front of _him_, murder in her bright blue eyes.

"What are you doing?" she asks, and her voice, it's too calm, but not calm enough to make Roxas shut up.

"I practically throw myself at her, and she just, she doesn't answer, she says nothing. I mean, I just _asked her out_and-"

"Roxas," the blonde girl interrupts, sighing, her eyes looking around the street, and maybe she shouldn't be saying this. "Roxas, Kairi was in an accident when she was a baby."

"And then she - What?"

"Roxas," Namine says, and she runs a small hand through her hair, "Roxas, Kairi's _deaf_."

"You mean she hasn't actually…"

"Heard _any_of what you've said? No."

"But she knew the flowers-" Roxas says, and she's grasping at straws, pulling at the threads of the broken argument.

"She's worked here for the last four years," Namine states, rubs at the fabric of her ugly apron. "She's getting all right at lip-reading the names of common household plants."

"Oh," Roxas says. "Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'." And Namine, she sighs again, stares at the pavement. "Just, leave her alone, stop, stop _pursuing_ her, she can't…_you_ can't, Roxas. She needs someone who will get it, you…too much of you is what you _say_."


	2. Chapter 2

Hi, guys! Here's the new chapter, I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. All of the characters belong to Square Enix and Disney.

* * *

"So, then," Hayner starts, and his gestures are getting away from him, he's all big, swinging arms tonight, all raised, exasperated voice. "Then Olette tells me that if I don't go to the freaking thing with her, she will seriously reconsider my commitment to our relationship. I mean, what the hell? Just because I don't want to go to some freaking charity ball!"

"That's pretty crap," Roxas says, but he's finding it difficult to get too involved tonight, he's too emotionally drained from over-thinking things, from over-thinking _Kairi_.

"What's up with you?" Hayner asks, and his brow furrows, and his palm finds its way to his forehead. "Usually I can't shut you up at this point."

"Ah," Roxas says, and he shrugs, "work's kinda crap at the moment."

"The smoothie hut? Dude, you should quit."

Roxas only quirks a brow, looks at his friend with good humor. "And what would I use to pay rent, oh wise one?"

"I dunno, sue Larxene for rape or something, get her to pay damages and live the rest of your years on that."

"Your plan, Hayner, it's unflawed."

Hayner shrugs, but he's smiling. "I could probably get you a job at the record store."

"Olette got you that job," the spiky blonde says, and he starts walking along the path. Hayner, he doesn't run to catch up.

"Yeah, but they like me!"

"No, they like Olette," Roxas calls back, and he can almost see Hayner laughing in the worlds behind him.

The park here, it's nice really, a nice place to be, to think, to walk.

When Roxas was very small, he and his brother, they'd run races down the maze of dusty pathways, seek out the prize of the playground, and even now, even now, Roxas's feet switch onto autopilot, and he's at the slide, the monkey bars, the seesaw, before he can stop himself.

It's empty, minus the little girl and her mother, minus that boy, the one on the swing.

Ah.

Kairi, she doesn't hear Roxas's feet plow through the leaf-litter, through the tiny mock-bark flooring. She only sees him when Roxas's shadow kills the light and warmth on his skin.

"Isn't it dangerous for you to be out on your own?"

Kairi stares up through her red bangs, and Roxas, maybe it steals his breath a little.

"You really can't hear me, can you? It's not just…it's not just Namine saying it to get me to leave you alone."

Kairi's pupils dart around her iris, trying to escape, her small, delicate fingers gesture to her ears, and she shrugs, smiles.

Roxas sits on the swing next to the girl. "I have enough trouble trying to understand people as it is, this kinda throws me on a loop."

Kairi's eyes are big and they're staring long and hard; Roxas can see her useless ears straining.

"I'm sorry," Roxas says, "but for what it's worth, I still like you."

* * *

The problem with the florist, Roxas thinks, is not so much the bell as it is the windows. 'Cause, you know, the windows, they're too big and too bold, and really are only there for show. To imply the findings of the great indoors.

Namine says that they overgrow some of the flowers so they look big and pretty to everyone walking passed. They're the flower, literally, and they're trying to get some pretty young thing in a stripy vest to pop by and spread the word, the pollen.

But Roxas, he kinda thinks it's stupid.

He goes in the next Wednesday though, and he's still wearing the ugly t-shirt from the smoothie hut, the black slacks and the name badge.

And Kairi, she…well, she's not there. Namine is though, the petite blonde with the grass-stained apron and the smile that would put even the most devoted dental model to shame.

"Where is she?"

Namine sighs, and she's pruning a set of overgrown magnolia bushes, clipping twigs and leaves and flower buds. She sighs again, inhales so hard that Roxas's lungs ache in sympathy. "When you break her heart, Roxas," she starts, and she's turned around now, is staring the spiky blonde in the eye, brandishing plant-clippers like you would not believe, "watch your back, 'cause I'll be there. Probably with a knife or a gun or some weapon of mass destruction."

"I think those clippers are more threatening," Roxas says, and he really wishes he was kidding.

"Then I'll bring these along too," she replies, and she's turned around, has gone back to pruning poor Magnolia.

"Was that your blessing, Ms. Namine?" Roxas tries, because it really sorta sounds like it. "Because it means a lot to me, really."

"Screw off."

"Whe-"

"She's out back. She's fixing an order for someone, so if she looks busy, leave her alone."

And Roxas, he's never actually been behind the counter before, so he tries his best to creep, to keep his hands to himself.

The read head, she's hard to see straight away, lost in a hurricane of green and pastel-yellow plastic-paper. There's endless gold ribbon that falls off the end of the table, rolls onto the floor, straight and narrow, a roman road. Her fingers, those small, gentle things, they're clutching a million stems, lilies and posies and magnolias.

Kairi, she's… she's _engrossed_, her eyes don't stray, and Roxas, he calls out a little, but Kairi's too focused, and her fingers are too busy, and, well, she's _deaf_.

So Roxas, he just, he _sits_, and he watches and maybe, maybe he can't help the smile that crawls across his face.

He's never sat still for so long.

* * *

"Will you talk for me?"

The girl stares at him, eyes squinting, face screwed up in concentration.

"I know deaf people can talk, because they have weird accents. I won't think yours is weird though, I'll probably like it," Roxas says, and his bangs really are getting too long, he plays with them a bit, before brushing them off his face.

Kairi just shrugs though.

"I still like you," the blonde says, and it's easier to say it now. Now that Kairi can't hear.

It isn't a surprise, the way the girl doesn't reply, but she finishes wrapping the petunias and piles them into Roxas's ready arms.

"Thanks," Roxas sighs, and he inhales till his heart aches in his chest. "Thanks," he says, and he leaves. But, he'll discover hours and hours later, there's a card on it that he didn't ask for.

_I'm deaf, not blind and not mute. I think you forget that sometimes._

* * *

"You left me a note," Roxas accuses sometime the next day. "You, Kairi…Kairi I-still-don't-know-your-last-name left me a note."

She shrugs, and she's all innocence, with the wide eyes and the delicate face, but her cute smile, the twitch of her lips gives her away.

"You left me a note, and you aren't blind and you aren't mute, so I want you to talk for me."

Somewhere deep in the backdrop of the jungle, Namine laughs aloud.

* * *

So Roxas, the way he figures, is that if Kairi can write notes then so can he. Of course, the fact that he is not a twelve-year-old girl is seriously put under question as a result.

"Three violets," Roxas says, and Kairi nods a little, scribbles on a pad of paper and wanders out the back.

She comes back in a matter of minutes, a bouquet of three in her dainty arms. She looks like a grown flower girl, a bridesmaid, a maid of honour, a _bride_.

The paper she hands over says $8.98, and the munny that Roxas gives back has a note on top.

_Come out with me tonight? Check yes or no._

* * *

"Crap," Roxas says, "crap."

Axel's lost amongst the sofa cushions, and maybe (there are no maybes about it) he's laughing a little.

"Crap," Roxas says, and his fingers run races through his hair, he straightens his button up shirt, and maybe he kinda wonders why the hell he's wearing a freaking _blouse_…thing.

"You're too cute," Axel says, and he's on the playstation, _Mario Racecarts_ too tempting for his fragile resistance.

"No," the blonde says, and he collapses onto the sofa beside him, brushes at his bangs and yeah, he really does need a haircut. "I am a nervous wreck, I am a car crash waiting to happen. She's gonna get in, and then I'll say the wrong thing, and I'll completely screw everything up, because-"

"Dude," Axel starts, and his eyes are glued to the screen, he's Mario today, he's always Mario. "Roxas, provided you haven't been shamelessly lying to me, this kid's freaking deaf. Makes sense, no one who values their ears _would_ date you."

"Shut up," he says, and he picks up the second handset. "I have a beautiful voice."

Axel laughs a bit again, ruffles his hair with a wayward hand. He states jokingly, "You have a beautiful everything, Roxas."

"Damn straight I do," he says, and it's strange, them living here together. He was never the friend he figured he'd shack up with. "And, Axel…"

"Yeah?" he asks, and he's back to playing the game, turning corners too hard.

"Thanks for everything tonight, y'know, cooking dinner and everything. Without burning it."

The game's on pause, and Axel, the man is just _smiling_.

"I hate you a lot," he says, and he rolls his eyes to the ceiling, to the light bulb that flickers above their heads, "but that doesn't mean I stop loving you, man."

"Yeah," Roxas says, "ditto."


	3. Chapter 3

Here it is! The final chapter of The Florist, my first fic here on this site. I hope you enjoy it, and please review!

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing, all of the characters belong to Square Enix and Disney

* * *

Kairi's in a light pink, knee-length dress. She's standing in the doorway to the apartment and she's awkward and fluttery and uncomfortable in her skin, in her clothes, and maybe she's out of her depth.

"Hi," Roxas says, "hi." And he's breathing in too quickly, his eyelids blinking and his body is releasing disgusting sweat by the pound.

It's gross, and makes the blonde even more nervous about his appearance.

Kairi waves a little, and it's still awkward, and Roxas doesn't want her to feel like she shouldn't be here.

"So," the blonde says, and he pulls Kairi through the entrance, slams the door behind her. "So, my friend totally made us casserole and if it sucks and it's burnt, I've got money for pizza."

Kairi doesn't hear, she isn't even looking at Roxas, she's scouring the walls, fingering the corners of the picture frames.

"My friend, Axel, he's usually here. But, y'know, you're here so he left. He wanted to meet you, but I don't think that'd be the best idea."

There's a smile that tugs at the corner of Kairi's lips, but she gestures to her ears again, _I can't hear you_, and Roxas, he can understand that much.

"Right," he says, and he grasps Kairi's fingers in his own, tugs her into the kitchen. "Uh, casserole. Hope you're not like, vegetarian, because that would kinda suck."

Dinner's over too quickly, and it's just, all it is is Roxas _talking, talking, talking _nervously and the red head, well, she's not _listening_, but she pretends to, and Roxas appreciates the sentiment.

They sorta migrate into the living room, and Roxas went to the video store that morning, got out as many films with subtitles as he could. Most of them are foreign.

He forgets that most DVD's have it for the hearing impaired now anyway.

Kairi, though, maybe she appreciates the sentiment too. She pulls out that Jackie Chan flick, that _New Police Story_.

The movie, it builds up, and maybe Roxas is too used to watching movies with his chattery friend, 'cause Axel has to butt in the movie every eight and a half minutes, and Roxas just ignores him throughout movies, so he doesn't notice Kairi is gone until she returns.

She gets back when they're all on top of the building, when the abusive dad of the attractive kid is ready to get all crazy. Then the kid, that Asian criminal, he basically commits suicide. Kinda.

Kairi though, she taps him on the shoulder, and she's holding Roxas's acoustic guitar, the one his parents bought him for his thirteenth birthday.

_Lost in the backdrop, Jackie Chan is racing down the outside wall of a vertical building._

"Uh," Roxas says, "yeah, I used to play. Don't have time much anymore, y'know with work and stuff." _With all my free time spent up on you_, only, he doesn't say that.

_Jackie Chan, he's clutching the rope in adamantly strong fingers to save the other guy, the young one in the jacket._

She's nodding, and her hair bounces as she does it. She's smiling, just that tiny bit, and well, what the hell?

The blonde grasps the guitar in his hands, tunes it a little and, well, he tries to remember _Good Riddance_.

Ah.

_Jackie Chan and the young, good guy, they've fallen onto the air mattress set up by the firemen. The villagers rejoice._

So, without further hesitation, without announcement or applause, Roxas starts to strum out the chords, and Kairi doesn't take her blue eyes off of his fingers.

He's playing, and, well, _he _can't take his eyes off _Kairi_, Kairi and her huge eyes and her parted lips and the way that even now, even now a million miles away from the florist, she still smells like flowers.

Kairi takes Roxas's fingers away from the guitar string, tries to interlace them with her own, but just ends up playing with them, touching the roughened pads.

"_I wish_," Kairi starts, and she's slow, she over-pronounces syllables and letters. "_I wish that I_…" She points to herself with her other hand, but, she doesn't look at him, she can't make eye contact. "…_could _hear _you_."

To be fair, she takes seconds on each word; she's thinking it out, and she's trying as hard as she can to make the same mouth shapes that they do on television. To be fair, she mispronounces the word 'could'. But this is _Kairi_, and this is the little deaf girl who sits behind the counter of the florist that Roxas has spent more money in this year than anywhere, and that's just plain screwed up.

"I wish you could hear me too," Roxas says, but she doesn't hear it, doesn't see it, she's not making eye contact, she's staring too hard at the floor.

"I think I could be in love with you," Roxas says, and his voice shakes and maybe that would be embarrassing if the girl had heard a word he'd said.

* * *

"So," Roxas says, and it's Friday morning. Friday means one day until the weekend, three days till his next paycheck. "So," he says, and he's decked out in his work gear, he has to be back at the smoothie hut in half an hour. "So I'm being ironic."

He's not really sure what else to say, so he opts to go with, "I stole them out of my neighbour's yard." And then he hands them over, hands over a bunch of daisies and buttercups and dandelion leaves, and, well, everyone can still see the roots on one of them where Brendon pulled too hard.

Kairi doesn't hear, but she _gets _it, and she laughs sweetly.

"You know, when I get enough money to leave the apartment, I am totally going to buy a mansion for us to live in. Then," Roxas says, and he's pushing Kairi on the swing; she's too quiet, "and then, we can get married. I mean, I know I've only known you for like, two months, but I think we could last forever."

Roxas breathes in too quickly, but the exhale, he draws it out, lets the air whistle through his teeth. "I want this to last forever."

Kairi twists in the seat, and for a second, an instant, the blonde boy worries that she heard it.

"_Reservation_?" Kairi says, and her lips twitch a little, her eyes widen, and she's not smiling. Not right now.

"Right," he says, "don't want to miss it, _Pizza Hut _is a sort-after establishment."

"Roxas," Kairi starts, and her forehead is scrunched up, and her eyebrows are furrowed. Roxas, well he notices these things too much. "Roxas," the girl says again, and she reaches out a hand to tug at the boy's own hand, to hold on to it too tight.

"_I can't hear you_," she says, and the words, they slur together a bit. It's what happens when he's not careful enough to over-pronounce them.

"I know," Roxas laughs. "I _know_."

Kairi, she's trying to lip-read, Roxas can always tell because her eyes strain, she tries to mouth the letters in response, and she can never quite figure any of it out. She's as good at deciphering mouths as Roxas is at Morse code.

The red head gives up, and it's obvious from the way she slouches, the way her shoulders hunch and the way her face falls.

"_I can't hear you_," she says, "_I am scared that you take advantage of that_."

Roxas can't think of anything to say, but Kairi is looking at him with expectant eyes and maybe, maybe he can't help but kiss her.

He presses his lips against her's too hard and too forward, too quickly. When Kairi doesn't kiss back, he figures it was maybe a bad idea.

"_No_," Kairi says, and she shakes her head, grasps the chain of the swing.

"Yeah, the reservation," Roxas says, after too many seconds go by without another move. "Pizza Hut waits for no one, y'know."

* * *

The florist is dark the next evening, and maybe it's closed to anyone who isn't Roxas.

"Kairi can sign right?" he asks, and he's trying out casual indifference today, playing with the stems of a dozen roses.

"Uh," Namine says, lifting an eyebrow slightly. "Yeah. Why wouldn't she be able to sign?"

"Well, I figure that some deaf people can't sign…"

"Roxas," Namine starts, and she's trimming the leaves of a rather over-grown looking rose bush. "How many deaf people do you know that can't sign?" She's looking at him as if he's stupid now.

And well, to be fair Kairi is the first deaf person he's met ever. "How many deaf people do you know in general?"

"Three," Namine says, and her smile is smug, as if she knows it all. She glances over at the spiky blonde. "They can all sign."

"Know it all."

"Yeah," Namine replies, and even though she's still grinning, even though she's still pretty freaking pleased with having the upper hand, her eyes look sincerely and honestly _worried_. "Why?"

"Oh, uh, well, Kairi, she…" Roxas starts, and he scratches at the clump of hair at the back of his neck, runs a large hand through the hair on his head. He takes a deep breath, and his feet start to tap nervously on the floor, "…she's _deaf_, Namine."

"No crap, Sherlock," she says, rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

"Maybe I'm in this for the long run."

The blonde girl doesn't say anything, just keeps trimming at newborn leaves and baby branches on the plants in the store.

"Well, y'know, I'd like to be. I dunno, it's probably not realistic, but, it's just-"

"She talks about you all the time," Namine says. "She can't pronounce your name."

"Right," Roxas says, and he can feel his brain scrape across the edges of his skull, it's troubled and maybe a little elated, maybe it's all a little too real, that Kairi can't say _Roxas_.

"But she talks about you."

"Yeah?"

"She's never talked about anyone like that."

"Yeah," he says, and he's starting to wonder where this is going, what the hell's gonna happen next.

"A lady that comes in here sometimes is a translator for the hearing-impaired. She gives lessons to a select few."

Roxas doesn't speak, nods a little, and his fingers brush the silk-soft petals of the flowers in front of him.

"I'll make a call," Namine finishes, and maybe, just maybe a smile crawls its way across her face.

Roxas can't really tell, not with the way his heart pounds in his ears.

* * *

Roxas has discovered that he has an overactive sweat gland.

Well, maybe hasn't really discovered it, he's always just assumed, what with the way he kinda sheds it by the bucket, but this is the third time that he's ever honestly felt it.

Second time being when Kairi came over for their first date.

First time being when he was fifteen and lost his virginity to some desperate chick at one of those typical high school parties.

They're at some fancy French restaurant tonight, where the waiter gives them dirty looks over his notepad. A fancy restaurant that just makes them both uncomfortable.

They should've stuck with Pizza Hut.

Or maybe Subway.

"Do you want a drink or something?" Roxas asks, but that's stupid, because Kairi has a wine-glass full of water in front of him already.

The blue-eyed girl only shrugs all the same, is leaning, seemingly melting into the table, into the menu that lays in front of her.

"Kairi," he starts, because he only came to this place for one reason, one freaking thing tonight. "Kairi…"

He puts a hand on the stunningly beautiful girl's shoulder.

"_Yeah_?" Kairi asks, and she looks up too quickly, with those pools of swimming sky blue.

This is probably it, Roxas thinks, this is probably what everything else has been leading up to, this is probably the part with the drum roll and the fireworks and the never-ending fiery kiss.

Roxas's fingers shake as he does it, because really, he doesn't want to screw this up. "Kairi," he says, "Kairi."

The girl, she's staring with big, bright eyes, and Roxas can feel his heart in his throat again, can feel it twist itself into a strange, tight knot.

The blonde, he does it before he can think twice. He signs it out, with quick and nimble fingers. _I Love _You, because yeah, each word deserves a freaking capital.

And Kairi, suddenly she looks so, so serious, so scared. Her fingers shake, and she grasps at the stem of the wine glass in front of her, sips and wavers, and a sound escapes from the depths of her throat.

"Roxas_,_" she whispers, and she really can't pronounce it, struggles over the syllables, the shape of the word.

She leans forward, pushes her chest across the surface of the table and, and suddenly they're _kissing_.

It's nothing really, nothing; it's short and it's innocent, and neither of them are prepared to really risk it, to part their lips and suddenly give this thing a whole new meaning.

"_I wouldn't be here_," she whispers, and she's leaning back again, not too far though, still a hair's length away, each letter too long again, "_if I didn't love you too._"

"Good," Roxas says, and his voice is deeper than he has ever remembered, and without further waiting or hesitating, without cause or effect, he kisses the girl again.

Kairi, she still smells like marigolds and tiger lilies, with maybe just a hint of strawberry now too.

* * *

A/N: I would just like to say thank you to the readers and people who reviewed my story. Feel free to request fics or drop me a prompt or two, I'm always looking for something new to write!

Thanks especially to:  
**Zeta's-Awakening  
****I Falling Rose I  
**and the '**anon**' that left a review!


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